Why effective communication is important to me

Who do you think is more attractive?

Looking at this picture, the answer is pretty obvious. A lack of effective communicative skills for most professions is like a pretty girl being turn to an ogre and wants to find a husband; there is a huge hindrance to realizing your dream. In the fantasy world, princess fiona was lucky to find her true love despite being turned to an orge. In the real world, we are often not given many chances to show our true abilities. While being competent in our work is important, people generally will not put in much effort to find out about us. Our communication skills is what we depend on to present ourselves.

Effective communication encompass a wide range of skills. For this entry, I will highlight 3 areas which I believe are important and why they matter to me.

1. Public Speaking

This is probably how I look like the first time I have to make a presentation in front of a huge crowd. Public speaking is probably the biggest hurdle to most people in effective communication. Whenever I stood in front of a big crowd, a part of my mind just went blank. My heart starts beating faster, my hand starts to tremble, I either forget what I wanted to say or rush through all my sentences. Like what many people who face the same problem did, I used to tried my best to avoid all possible scenarios where I have to do public speaking.

At first, things worked out pretty well for me even as I continue to procrastinate in confronting my fear of public speaking. I realized along the way that I am relatively effective in presenting myself in small group setting, and often try to work in that context. As I get more comfortable, I started to have a belief that I could still achieve everything I want without confronting the fear of public speaking. I was terribly wrong.

As a engineering Student, I seldom need to present in class. However, I have a keen interest in entrepreneurship and took part in several programs in the field. During that period, I felt the result of my years of procrastination as I repeatedly have to do public speaking. I experienced first hand how being an effective communicator in front of a big crowd can be a great advantage. I witness different instances of how individuals are able to get more opportunities or sell their ideas after they learnt to be more charismatic in front of the crowd. Deferring to confront my fear of public speaking is like deferring many different opportunities in life.

As I forced myself to present more often, things got slightly better. There are many areas to improve on and I still feel nervous when I have to speak in front of a crowd, but it feels good to put in effort in confronting my fear. I wished I had started earlier.

2. Interpersonal Skills

The ability to work well with others is probably one of the most important skills in life. I am glad that I manage to have a positive experience in most of my past working relationship. Because of that, I always thought that I have a good interpersonal skill. 

During my internship last semester, I learnt more about what good interpersonal skill is. Being comfortable and break the ice with strangers during networking events, working with people who are much more senior, negotiation with clients/co-workers, these are all interpersonal skills that are important for many professions. 

As an introvert, I often prefer to do work myself. However, that is often not the most efficient way in doing things. It may require more effort, but stepping out of the comfort zone and engage in meaningful discussion with peers often leads to better result. I find a class like ES2007 a good place for students to learn to do so. 

3. Self- Confidence

I believe that learning the art of effective communication is like learning any skill in life, the more effort you put in, the better you get. And you become better at something, you naturally become more confident in your own ability. Since communication is something we have to face in our daily life, getting better at it certainly provides a good boost to our morale and confidence level. And these are two key ingredients to achieving all other goals we have. 

To sum up, effective communication is a set of skills that directly affect a large part of our life. Its also a set of skill that we can gradually improve with practice. In one of his bestselling book Outlier: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell highlighted that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for us to be really good at something. It is a pity that procrastination often delayed some of us by a few hundred hours before we finally get out of the comfort zone. The good news is, its never to late, or too early to start.